Enforcement first

WHY HAS the federal government abdicated its responsibility to enforce existing immigration laws?

Money, power and a willingness among those of both parties to prostitute themselves in order to stay in office.

The last major attempt at immigration reform came in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan championed amnesty for 3 million illegal immigrants, along with a package of border and workplace enforcement.

What happened?

We got the amnesty, but not the enforcement.

No matter which party, Democrat or Republican, had control of Congress or the presidency, none of them had the guts to fund enforcement efforts and demand action on existing laws.

That's because big business - major Republican donors - likes cheap labor; and because Hispanic Americans - who typically vote Democratic - have made the issue out to be racial in nature (it's not), and strong-armed the Democrats into quiescence by threatening to withhold support.

For 20 years, the federal government has quite cynically ignored the border with Mexico.

The booming economy of the 1990s allowed businesses to fold low-paid illegal immigrants into the workforce without much fuss from Americans.

Unprodded by public outcry, Congress and Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton ignored their responsibilities.

The first was ignoring the fact that terrorists could slip across the Mexican border along with folks looking for work.

The second was that with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agents' attention elsewhere, illegal immigrants began flooding across the border.

Two decades of failure by Congress to commit adequate funding and by the executive branch to demand enforcement means that now, we're dealing with about 12 million illegal immigrants - four times the number who were granted amnesty back in 1986.

The federal government's history on immigration is not one to inspire confidence - especially when compromise bills include both amnesty (until now, politically easier to accomplish), and border enforcement (until now, easy to ignore).

That's the main reason conservative voters raised such an uproar, and why Republican Senators bucked President Bush.

Conservative voters want to see border and workplace enforcement happen first, before they will trust the feds to properly handle an amnesty program.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., summed it up best: "It's not just promises but proof that the American people want."

While some say the matter is dead until after the 2008 elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised that the immigration issue will come back up.

Our advice to the Honorable Senator from Nevada is not to tie too many issues into one bill. First, get an enforcement bill passed.

Then, work out a reasonable path to citizenship for those (otherwise) law-abiding illegal immigrants who can show stability, hard work and a willingness to assimilate into American culture.

In the meantime - until any new legislation is passed - the federal government should try devoting enough resources to actually enforce existing immigration laws.